Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon.
Some of McCoy's jibes at Spock are just plain mean. But then, the last moment in the episode wouldn't work nearly so well if he hadn't said it.
I think McCoy makes up for it with his speech to Spock aboard the Klingon ship in The Search for Spock.
As a TV series goes on, the characters take on a life of their own. They aren't "supposed" to say this because it it isn't like them, and they "ought" to remember that from prior episodes. Shatner and Nimoy both mixed it up with directors over this. But in those days, every episode of most shows was like a play unto itself. Due to technology and economics, the reruns had to be airable in any order.
And in any case, nobody wanted to intimidate new viewers with the need to know backstory, or even just bog down the writers with a need to know all that went before. Realistic psychological dramas with large ensemble casts and a relentless "show memory" ("Previously on Hill Street Blues...") were largely a thing of the future.
DeForest Kelley would have been VERY disappointed if his "You'll never know the things..." had been cut. That was his bread and butter as a performing artist. And it was a fantastic soliloquy, which I think justified any variance with how McCoy "ought" to treat Spock.
The whole episode was theatrical, and a wonderful melodrama, and for me it can stand alone, with no memory of Kirk's utter selflessness or McCoy's hard-earned affection for Spock. "Requiem" was this week's play, and (with the help of love themes lifted from "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Empath") it was a great play.
A similar cut did happen on ST:TMP, when McCoy had a big scene scolding Kirk, and Shatner evidently took it up with someone and got the scene taken out. And in that case I say Good, because diminishing Kirk was the dumbest thing they did in a movie with various dumb things in it. But Kelley thought it would be a great scene for him. I'm glad he got to shine in "Requiem," because Nimoy appreciated some great writing on that page and didn't fight it.
With just one word, Spock a) grants McCoy's wish and b) reveals that he does understand more than the doctor gives him credit for. Succinct Spock.
I agree for the most part but Kirk falling head over heels in under 2 hours to the point of backburnering his crew isn't off model for KIRK, it's off model for any captain and just plain dumb for any character we're supposed to care about. Unless it's Poison Ivy spraying pheromone dust on Batman. So whether it's episode 1 or 76, a continuing arc or "this week's play" it's a bad writing decision. YMMV of course.
Yeah, Kirk's whole reaction in the episode never sat right with me. It drives me nuts the whole Raya things.
In my headcanon, Flint has subtly manipulated Kirk mentally/emotionally to make him fall for Rayna.
Agreed. Only thing that makes sense. I’ve long thought this.
I say the table top model is a hologram representing the ship. Flint may have genuinely "frozen" the ship, but if so, it's frozen in a transporter buffer or an alternate dimension that Flint has access to. That's all the power he needs to be awesome, and it seems more practical.
I'd be concerned about certain things. Will he have to wear protection to keep from getting electrocuted? Did Flint build her with a "right to repair," and can Kirk get replacement parts? I know if she were mine, I'd wear out this and that.
If we can add layers that were not stated, here's another one I like. Flint may have faked Rayna's death with his little remote control, to send Kirk packing— Flint being more compassionate than he lets on.
As soon as Kirk leaves, Flint can boot up Rayna in Safe Mode, edit her memories, and then Restart.
And Spock is awfully smooth about it, with a quick explanation for how an android can die of emotional overload. Spock and Flint may have secretly arranged for this very outcome. Spock wants to "reset" Kirk to get him out of Romance Mode, and Flint wants Kirk gone. "Mr. Flint, I have an idea."
I love ya, Zap, but.... naaaaaah. It is what it looks like. Yer puttin' a lot more thought into it than the showrunners did. 60's TV: cool visual, and I don't even know if Kellam Deforest, et al were being asked to look at these anymore.
As far as mass shifting, nearly every SF show that did stuff like this - as well as humanoids shapeshifting into mice and snack trays, just hoped nobody would notice.
I've previously suggested that Flint built this model of Rayna with too many pheromones emitters which affected Kirk most due to his close and extended proximity to Rayna.
Additionally, Kirk's "immune system" towards resisting pheromones may have been impaired by Elaan's pheromone attack earlier in Elaan of Troyius.
We are given:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/al...-methuselah/requiem-for-methuselah-br-566.jpg
MCCOY: Physically human but not human. These are earlier versions of Rayna, Jim. She's an android.
Rayna 1 through 16 died, and so does our Rayna 17; no rebooting. It appears that Flint just boots up a new Rayna from inventory. MCCOY: Physically human but not human. These are earlier versions of Rayna, Jim. She's an android.
Or that Kirk et al were already infected by the plague, which affected their behaviour and perception of what actually occurred on the planet!
Spoiler if you haven't read The Cry of the Onlies and want to.
I know this isn't canon, but there's a meeting of Flint and Kirk in the novel The Cry of the Onlies. Kirk doesn't understand why he has this unexplained anger towards Flint. And McCoy doesn't understand why Kirk doesn't bring up Rayna or his feelings about her. Eventually, he realizes that Spock is the reason Kirk doesn't remember. He's actually touched at what Spock did. McCoy and Spock discuss whether Spock should tell Kirk what he did, which causes quite a bit of concern for Spock who is keenly aware of the ethics he has violated. When Kirk finally raises his unexplained anger with Spock, Spock tells Jim that something happened with Flint that would explain his anger, and while Spock would tell Kirk what happened if Jim wanted him to, he's asking Jim to trust him and not pursue it. And Jim decides he trusts his friend enough not to pursue it.
Rayna 1 through 16 died, and so does our Rayna 17; no rebooting. It appears that Flint just boots up a new Rayna from inventory.
I never saw it that way. I thought the earlier versions of Rayna were set aside because Flint didn't get the hardware right. If this was the 17th time a Rayna had burned out, would he have taken it so hard? By that point, if Rayna units were dropping dead, he would be on guard against getting too attached.
Therefore I think he was either genuinely grieving because a Rayna has never died before, as in the plain text, or that Rayna could be revived, and he was conning Kirk to end the love triangle— a possible subtext.
Home stretch here...
The Savage Curtain - yeah, I'm gonna go there... ***
I always liked this one a lot. Sure, it's weird, gimmicky and is "inspired by" Arena. But there a lot of great stuff that, even this late in the run, stuck with fans and became part of Trek Lore. It is, in retrospect, an important episode.
Firstly, the characters feel right again. At last. The dialog rings true for most of it. Since this is the first teleplay in forever to carry a credit by Gene Roddenberry (with Arthur Heinmann), this might have something to do with it. TBH, I don't know how much he actually did, but the first half at least feels like Gene. I had read he only supplied the first half of the actual teleplay (even though his treatment was kicking around for years), but I don't know for sure. Some of it is heavy handed, another Roddenberry trait. The "hopeful future" dialog is all over the scenes where Lincoln tours the ship. The briefing room scene bristles with old style Trek dialog as McCoy and Scotty sound just right. Really, all of the stuff on the Enterprise, prior to beam down, is solid. Lee Bergere was the first actor I saw portray Lincoln as a kid, so every other portrayal (on TV at least) has to compare to the standard he set. He set the bar really high. His interactions with Kirk are wonderful and Bergere and Shatner's chemistry is perfect.
I love how, once Lincoln disappears from the viewscreen after making arrangements to beam aboard, nobody says a word. They just stand there, processing.
Of course we get fun continuity goofs like "we can convert" to measuring time in minutes when they've been doing that all series. I guess they were trying centons on for size? I mean, did they drop minutes but keep hours? It's not even internally consistent, but this may have to do with two writers on this script. It's the same with measurements. They mentioned miles before...
Kirk responds to Lincoln's question about the music like the former president like "taped music" is the most obvious thing in the world. (EDIT: my comment in Requiem for Methuselah was incorrect. The presidential music is a last original music composed for the series, not the Brahms waltz. ) Kirk does, however, give us the best and clearest explanation for how the transporter works. No duplication of people, no "cloning": just breakdown into energy, beamed to the location and reassembled.
Once we get to the planet, the interest remains at first. Surak is beautifully played by Barry Atwater. I - think - this is legitimately the first time we've seen another Vulcan with the same hairstyle as Spock. Sarek, Stonn, Mirror universe Vulcans all had varied styles. Surak and Spock have the bangs. One could assume that Spock's obvious reverence for the man influenced his style. One of the things I didn't like about the sequel series is the standardization of the aliens. All Vulcan males had bangs, all Romulans had bangs and forehead ridges (which defeated the "distant brothers" aspect), etc. In the original series and their movies, only the ears were the true commonality. I would include eyebrows, but Saavik's first appearance had Kirstie Alley's natural eyebrows.
Anyway.
Yarnek (never called this on screen) was vividly brought to life by the great Janos Prohaska and Bartel LaRue. What a fantastic alien. His transformations from unliving rock to his mobile state are well done for the era. In fact we see some nice new, if simple, effects. The inhabitable area from space, the Enterprise orbit shot ABOVE the planet at the end, and the memorable intro of Lincoln.
Then we get Kahless. He will prove to be a huge influence on TNG and DS9, if not in person, then factoring in Klingon lore. Col. Green will be mentioned in the waning days of Enterprise. Phillip Pine is excellent. He usually played bad guys and toughies, mostly because of his look, but he was also a great Vice President in The Outer Limits a few years earlier. He apparently enjoyed playing Col. Green and was impressed with the class of the production. Imagine how he'd have felt if he were in earlier seasons!
Once we get the explanations, it lets us down a tad (I feel like this is where Roddenberry took off). All that mystery to simply be another alien contest. And the stakes are (yawn) the Enterprise and her crew. With another ticking clock. ("Four hours until the ship blows up!"). At least we don't get a romance this time...unless you count the bromance of Kirk/Lincoln. This is the final episode without such romance.
The combat scenes are somewhat tedious. Rocks and sticks from a distance can work if it's filmed with care and skill. This comes off as pedestrian. Kahless is, apparently, a "talented" mimic.
Col. Green: "Can you cry like Lincoln?"
Kahless: "Help me Kirrrrrrrk..."
No he can't, they seem to have forgotten to dub in Bergere's voice. I guess Col. Green agrees with me since they didn't use the ruse for Lincoln. Even with all that "meh" Honest Abe's death is still effective and stuck with me as a kid.
The ending of this is pessimistic, which is why I feel like Arthur Heinmann took over in the back half. Kirk and Spock win by fighting with the same viciousness as the so called villains. There is a lesson in this, but it's obscured or at last at odds with Roddenberry's first half. If the writers switched it, let Lincoln and Surak live and Kirk and Spock give their lives to save them - only for it to be an illusion - then it could have worked and given Yarnek a new lesson instead of it all being for seemingly nothing. Still, it was entertaining. I don't know how Kirk and Spock "won" since at the end, they still had equal forces. 4 per team, 2 dead each. Still 2 for 2. I guess because they ran off. Whatevs, the episode had to end.
Spock's explanation of where their heroes came from is okay, but doesn't explain where the bad guys came from. Did Yarnek pluck them from time? Yarnek refers to them as real even in the end. So if the bad guys were real, why not Lincoln and Surak? This script suffers from end of the season haste and the fact that the two writers didn't work together on it.
Yes, it gets three stars from me. Why? Because it feels like Star Trek. The characters are on point and it's a dandy mystery for the first half, with a lot of dread leading up to to the beamdown.
EDIT: my comment in Requiem for Methuselah was incorrect. The presidential music is a last original music composed for the series, not the Brahms waltz.
This is the final original series appearance of Nichelle Nichols. She goes out with memorable scenes ands charm. Thanks, for all you brought to the series, Nichelle.
The Savage Curtain - yeah, I'm gonna go there... ***
I always liked this one a lot. Sure, it's weird, gimmicky and is "inspired by" Arena. But there a lot of great stuff that, even this late in the run, stuck with fans and became part of Trek Lore. It is, in retrospect, an important episode.
Firstly, the characters feel right again. At last. The dialog rings true for most of it. Since this is the first teleplay in forever to carry a credit by Gene Roddenberry (with Arthur Heinmann), this might have something to do with it. TBH, I don't know how much he actually did, but the first half at least feels like Gene. I had read he only supplied the first half of the actual teleplay (even though his treatment was kicking around for years), but I don't know for sure. Some of it is heavy handed, another Roddenberry trait. The "hopeful future" dialog is all over the scenes where Lincoln tours the ship. The briefing room scene bristles with old style Trek dialog as McCoy and Scotty sound just right. Really, all of the stuff on the Enterprise, prior to beam down, is solid. Lee Bergere was the first actor I saw portray Lincoln as a kid, so every other portrayal (on TV at least) has to compare to the standard he set. He set the bar really high. His interactions with Kirk are wonderful and Bergere and Shatner's chemistry is perfect.
I love how, once Lincoln disappears from the viewscreen after making arrangements to beam aboard, nobody says a word. They just stand there, processing.
Of course we get fun continuity goofs like "we can convert" to measuring time in minutes when they've been doing that all series. I guess they were trying centons on for size? I mean, did they drop minutes but keep hours? It's not even internally consistent, but this may have to do with two writers on this script. It's the same with measurements. They mentioned miles before...
Kirk responds to Lincoln's question about the music like the former president like "taped music" is the most obvious thing in the world. (EDIT: my comment in Requiem for Methuselah was incorrect. The presidential music is a last original music composed for the series, not the Brahms waltz. ) Kirk does, however, give us the best and clearest explanation for how the transporter works. No duplication of people, no "cloning": just breakdown into energy, beamed to the location and reassembled.
Once we get to the planet, the interest remains at first. Surak is beautifully played by Barry Atwater. I - think - this is legitimately the first time we've seen another Vulcan with the same hairstyle as Spock. Sarek, Stonn, Mirror universe Vulcans all had varied styles. Surak and Spock have the bangs. One could assume that Spock's obvious reverence for the man influenced his style. One of the things I didn't like about the sequel series is the standardization of the aliens. All Vulcan males had bangs, all Romulans had bangs and forehead ridges (which defeated the "distant brothers" aspect), etc. In the original series and their movies, only the ears were the true commonality. I would include eyebrows, but Saavik's first appearance had Kirstie Alley's natural eyebrows.
Anyway.
Yarnek (never called this on screen) was vividly brought to life by the great Janos Prohaska and Bartel LaRue. What a fantastic alien. His transformations from unliving rock to his mobile state are well done for the era. In fact we see some nice new, if simple, effects. The inhabitable area from space, the Enterprise orbit shot ABOVE the planet at the end, and the memorable intro of Lincoln.
Then we get Kahless. He will prove to be a huge influence on TNG and DS9, if not in person, then factoring in Klingon lore. Col. Green will be mentioned in the waning days of Enterprise. Phillip Pine is excellent. He usually played bad guys and toughies, mostly because of his look, but he was also a great Vice President in The Outer Limits a few years earlier. He apparently enjoyed playing Col. Green and was impressed with the class of the production. Imagine how he'd have felt if he were in earlier seasons!
Once we get the explanations, it lets us down a tad (I feel like this is where Roddenberry took off). All that mystery to simply be another alien contest. And the stakes are (yawn) the Enterprise and her crew. With another ticking clock. ("Four hours until the ship blows up!"). At least we don't get a romance this time...unless you count the bromance of Kirk/Lincoln. This is the final episode without such romance.
The combat scenes are somewhat tedious. Rocks and sticks from a distance can work if it's filmed with care and skill. This comes off as pedestrian. Kahless is, apparently, a "talented" mimic.
Col. Green: "Can you cry like Lincoln?"
Kahless: "Help me Kirrrrrrrk..."
No he can't, they seem to have forgotten to dub in Bergere's voice. I guess Col. Green agrees with me since they didn't use the ruse for Lincoln. Even with all that "meh" Honest Abe's death is still effective and stuck with me as a kid.
The ending of this is pessimistic, which is why I feel like Arthur Heinmann took over in the back half. Kirk and Spock win by fighting with the same viciousness as the so called villains. There is a lesson in this, but it's obscured or at last at odds with Roddenberry's first half. If the writers switched it, let Lincoln and Surak live and Kirk and Spock give their lives to save them - only for it to be an illusion - then it could have worked and given Yarnek a new lesson instead of it all being for seemingly nothing. Still, it was entertaining. I don't know how Kirk and Spock "won" since at the end, they still had equal forces. 4 per team, 2 dead each. Still 2 for 2. I guess because they ran off. Whatevs, the episode had to end.
Spock's explanation of where their heroes came from is okay, but doesn't explain where the bad guys came from. Did Yarnek pluck them from time? Yarnek refers to them as real even in the end. So if the bad guys were real, why not Lincoln and Surak? This script suffers from end of the season haste and the fact that the two writers didn't work together on it.
Yes, it gets three stars from me. Why? Because it feels like Star Trek. The characters are on point and it's a dandy mystery for the first half, with a lot of dread leading up to to the beamdown.
EDIT: my comment in Requiem for Methuselah was incorrect. The presidential music is a last original music composed for the series, not the Brahms waltz.
This is the final original series appearance of Nichelle Nichols. She goes out with memorable scenes ands charm. Thanks, for all you brought to the series, Nichelle.
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No less idiotic is when Scotty rambles about Lincoln dying centuries ago on ''a planet'' Scotty was born and raised on.
I don't think that's idiotic at all. Scotty is further emphasizing the impossibility of Lincoln being among them. Maybe melodramatically, but third season Scotty did everything melodramatically.
I could be in California and see someone claiming to be my father, who I just saw in New York, and easily say "but you were in a hospital in a state a thousand miles away!" I often say "my town" and "the city" without naming them. I used to rag on the Under the Dome TV series for having someone say "Chester's Mill" once every scene when everyone in the town knew where they were. Everyone knows Scotty's home planet.
Wrapping up with a two-fer...
All Our Yesterdays **
Yeah this one tries, but it makes no sense. Somehow, the entire population of a planet is sent back into various points of their history to escape destruction by super nova by one old man. I guess he could have started when he was younger, but his replicas are old lookin'.
Oh yeah, we have ANOTHER ticking clock.
Kirk is looking at a DVD of the middle ages of the planet, hears a woman scream and runs to the rescue. The atavachron send him back to that time. McCoy and Spock follow and somehow the machine knew what DVD they were looking at.
If you go back "unprepared' you can survive a few hours in the past because...script reasons. More ticking clocks. Kirk surmises from an offhand use of the word "prepared" that he wasn't supposed to go back in time yet. And nobody can alter history apparantly. This whole freaking new time travel scenario is mind boggling. So let's just forget that and get to the heart of the episode. Spock falling in love with Zarabeth. In the span of a few hours. And he's willing to let McCoy go back alone and live only, what? A few more minutes because he doesn't wanna leave?
This is no City on the Edge of Forever. I get that Spock was "reverting to his ancestors" and that is really the only saving grace of this instance of total devotion in the span of a few hours. Nimoy sells it, though, and I'm glad he had one more chance to do deeper work on the series.
Mariette Hartley is lovely in this early role. Really nice performance and you do feel like crap for her.
We get backlot shooting one last time but it's so poorly done, it looks like an interior. Shatner's fencing is great, but again, badly staged. His opponent looks like he merely drops the sword. The "vixin" is amazing. "I'm game luv. Lead and I'll follow. Where's LI-BRERRRYY?!" I actually found Kirk's situation more interesting than Spock's, but I admit to a bias there.
I want to love this like so many other fans do, but it's just poorly thought out. However, the library looks great and the time travel effects were cool as a kid. Another reason I watch the original effects: the final shot. It's gorgeous and simple with a lot of energy backed by grand music. The new effects may be "prettier" but the feeling of the Enterprise racing away while the planet fades out is missing. The original shot is one of my favorite moments of the season. It was perfect.
Two stars for Nimoy's performance and the great design work of the library. It's Star Trek and it's not a comedy, so I like it.
And finally....
Turnabout Intruder **
Shatner give the most incredible performance. Sick with the flu and 95% of the screentime, he just goes with gusto. His performance is the only reason to watch this. I was mesmerized. The man has such fantastic control over his voice and body. And how can a guy who looks so chubby in the uniform look 20 pounds lighter shirtless? I can't suck in my gut like that and I have "third season girth" right now.
Funny how the sickbay scene mirrors The Corbomite Maneuver, the first episode shot after the series was picked up. Barbara Baldavin (RIP) shows up in place of Uhura and Chapel comes back with dark hair (she looks great until the trail when her hair got really flat).
This episode is wild. Roddenberry's story with Arthur Singer writing his single teleplay of the series. It's a mess and a poor way to exit, but it is so over the top, it is a great time. It's never dull. Sandra Smith does a pretty good job as Kirk/Lester. Shatner's mincing, nail filing performance is to die for.
Thing is, the situation never would have gotten as far as it did in earlier seasons. Kirk was called on the carpet by McCoy and Spock for delaying a rendezvous in Obsession, Spock relieved Decker for endangering the ship. I can't imagine there aren't regulations in place to prevent the captain from going ape shit and executing his officers.
Dumb episode, but still a fun ride. Just sucks that this is the last live action adventure we would get for ten years.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And that's it. The entire series. I haven't done a full series rewatch in decades and I probably won't ever again (there are a couple I don't really need to watch any time soon). However, this was fun and I got a greater appreciation for episodes I started to stay away from. And I really did have a grand time with the third season.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
All Our Yesterdays **
Yeah this one tries, but it makes no sense. Somehow, the entire population of a planet is sent back into various points of their history to escape destruction by super nova by one old man. I guess he could have started when he was younger, but his replicas are old lookin'.
Oh yeah, we have ANOTHER ticking clock.
Kirk is looking at a DVD of the middle ages of the planet, hears a woman scream and runs to the rescue. The atavachron send him back to that time. McCoy and Spock follow and somehow the machine knew what DVD they were looking at.
If you go back "unprepared' you can survive a few hours in the past because...script reasons. More ticking clocks. Kirk surmises from an offhand use of the word "prepared" that he wasn't supposed to go back in time yet. And nobody can alter history apparantly. This whole freaking new time travel scenario is mind boggling. So let's just forget that and get to the heart of the episode. Spock falling in love with Zarabeth. In the span of a few hours. And he's willing to let McCoy go back alone and live only, what? A few more minutes because he doesn't wanna leave?
This is no City on the Edge of Forever. I get that Spock was "reverting to his ancestors" and that is really the only saving grace of this instance of total devotion in the span of a few hours. Nimoy sells it, though, and I'm glad he had one more chance to do deeper work on the series.
Mariette Hartley is lovely in this early role. Really nice performance and you do feel like crap for her.
We get backlot shooting one last time but it's so poorly done, it looks like an interior. Shatner's fencing is great, but again, badly staged. His opponent looks like he merely drops the sword. The "vixin" is amazing. "I'm game luv. Lead and I'll follow. Where's LI-BRERRRYY?!" I actually found Kirk's situation more interesting than Spock's, but I admit to a bias there.
I want to love this like so many other fans do, but it's just poorly thought out. However, the library looks great and the time travel effects were cool as a kid. Another reason I watch the original effects: the final shot. It's gorgeous and simple with a lot of energy backed by grand music. The new effects may be "prettier" but the feeling of the Enterprise racing away while the planet fades out is missing. The original shot is one of my favorite moments of the season. It was perfect.
Two stars for Nimoy's performance and the great design work of the library. It's Star Trek and it's not a comedy, so I like it.
And finally....
Turnabout Intruder **
Shatner give the most incredible performance. Sick with the flu and 95% of the screentime, he just goes with gusto. His performance is the only reason to watch this. I was mesmerized. The man has such fantastic control over his voice and body. And how can a guy who looks so chubby in the uniform look 20 pounds lighter shirtless? I can't suck in my gut like that and I have "third season girth" right now.
Funny how the sickbay scene mirrors The Corbomite Maneuver, the first episode shot after the series was picked up. Barbara Baldavin (RIP) shows up in place of Uhura and Chapel comes back with dark hair (she looks great until the trail when her hair got really flat).
This episode is wild. Roddenberry's story with Arthur Singer writing his single teleplay of the series. It's a mess and a poor way to exit, but it is so over the top, it is a great time. It's never dull. Sandra Smith does a pretty good job as Kirk/Lester. Shatner's mincing, nail filing performance is to die for.
Thing is, the situation never would have gotten as far as it did in earlier seasons. Kirk was called on the carpet by McCoy and Spock for delaying a rendezvous in Obsession, Spock relieved Decker for endangering the ship. I can't imagine there aren't regulations in place to prevent the captain from going ape shit and executing his officers.
Dumb episode, but still a fun ride. Just sucks that this is the last live action adventure we would get for ten years.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And that's it. The entire series. I haven't done a full series rewatch in decades and I probably won't ever again (there are a couple I don't really need to watch any time soon). However, this was fun and I got a greater appreciation for episodes I started to stay away from. And I really did have a grand time with the third season.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Savage Curtain: I adore this episode. I think this is my favorite third season episode. The only thing that comes close is Day of the Dove. As you pointed out, the character work in this episode is razor sharp. So that gives it the clear advantage.
And I don't see the ending as pessimistic at all. The Excalbians don't see the difference between the two groups. If we decide that we don't either than I can see the pessimism. But we're meant to see a difference and I think that I do.
Lincoln is probably a perfect character for this argument. He has a line that is so good that it has been attributed to the actual Lincoln. "There is no honorable way to kill. No gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending." If you're going to fight a war, fight to end the war!
"But out of our suffering some of us found the discipline to act. We sent emissaries to our opponents to propose peace. The first were killed, but others followed. Ultimately we achieved peace, which has lasted since then." One might wonder, in Surak's case, how does one LEAD a suicidally pacifistic movement? Or was he simply the leader of the first group that lived?
Still, a great character. And he holds up far better than Kahless the Unforgettable. (That's a GREAT name, though.)
"Since they were created out of our own thoughts, how could they be anything but what we expected them to be?" What a GREAT line.
Yesterdays:
This was my first Photonovel so this episode has an even softer spot in my heart.
Turnabout. Ugh. Shatner's performance is certainly fearless. But that doesn't make it good. The only saving grace (I suspect) would be if I saw a connection between the two performances of Lester. (You can kind of see Smith doing a little bit of a Shatner performance.) But it's not there. So it comes across as a Batman villain.
I never realized that Nichelle isn't in this episode. That's just sad.
And I don't see the ending as pessimistic at all. The Excalbians don't see the difference between the two groups. If we decide that we don't either than I can see the pessimism. But we're meant to see a difference and I think that I do.
Lincoln is probably a perfect character for this argument. He has a line that is so good that it has been attributed to the actual Lincoln. "There is no honorable way to kill. No gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending." If you're going to fight a war, fight to end the war!
"But out of our suffering some of us found the discipline to act. We sent emissaries to our opponents to propose peace. The first were killed, but others followed. Ultimately we achieved peace, which has lasted since then." One might wonder, in Surak's case, how does one LEAD a suicidally pacifistic movement? Or was he simply the leader of the first group that lived?
Still, a great character. And he holds up far better than Kahless the Unforgettable. (That's a GREAT name, though.)
"Since they were created out of our own thoughts, how could they be anything but what we expected them to be?" What a GREAT line.
Yesterdays:
That never made sense to me even when I was eight. It's right up there with Tomorrow is Yesterday's ending in terms of time travel shenanigans. Spock reverts to a savage but McCoy stays his lovable 23rd century self? (What's that, Mr. Meyer? There's no difference between 23rd century man and prehistoric man? Noted.)
This was my first Photonovel so this episode has an even softer spot in my heart.
Turnabout. Ugh. Shatner's performance is certainly fearless. But that doesn't make it good. The only saving grace (I suspect) would be if I saw a connection between the two performances of Lester. (You can kind of see Smith doing a little bit of a Shatner performance.) But it's not there. So it comes across as a Batman villain.
I never realized that Nichelle isn't in this episode. That's just sad.
It's been a joy!
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